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Sunday, August 25, 2013

Couch to 10k: week 7, session 3

52 min. Run 5 minutes. Walk 1 minute. Do this 7 times.

As with last time I really didn't fancy going out. I had a lot of internal grumbles about it but as soon as I got into the woodland and I smelt the trees and the wet earth I was happy. It's funny how your mood changes. You'd think I'd be excited about going out, knowing how good I feel when I start.

As I left the house I saw a grasshopper boinging across the pavement. On my run I saw 2 dragonflies soaring across the path in front of me. Two mating butterflies crashed into my hairline. There were lots and lots of birds twittering. It was lovely.

The ground was really quite muddy (we had a lot of rain yesterday morning) and I ended up with a load of dirt splattered over my calves. Speaking of calves, I saw another runner with amazing looking calves who actually smiled at me. Most runners I see are in their own world and ignore me. Or perhaps I don't look cool enough.

There's one particular section I go through which is slightly downhill and every time I do that section I feel my flesh shaking. My cheeks wobble and the flesh on my arms and the top of my bras wobbles. It's not an unpleasant sensation, it's just unexpected. Gravity is a wonderful thing.

In terms of my pace, I am still utterly slow. One round was particularly torturous because it's uphill (although it's a very gentle up hill). On the last round I decided I would try to go faster and pick my feet up some more. I thought it would be easy, it wasn't. I guess that's something to work on.

In total I ran for 35 minutes and walked for 19 minutes, for about 3.95 miles. I think I need to get faster otherwise it's going to take me well over an hour to do a 10k. :( I'd like to be able to do it in under an hour. Is that possible?

Total money raised: £28.75

The usual reminder here: If you'd like to sponsor me you can do so here or give directly to ASN here. Abortion Support Network provide money to Irish women needing to travel to the UK for abortions. Here is their July/August newsletter:

ASN in the News

Showing us the money! Fundraising for ASN

The results are in! ASN’s supporter survey

A note on your donations

Women we’ve helped

Have some time and a flair for the social? ASN seeks two volunteers!

Gift in Kind – Have a phone to spare?

ASN in the news

It might be summer out there, but with the signing of the “Protection of
Life during Pregnancy Act” in Ireland abortion has been front and
centre in the news. ASN was asked to comment, and our director Mara
Clarke predicted that the new legislation wouldn’t have any impact on
the number of women who contact ASN each month, and pointed out that
restrictions on abortion access do nothing to stop abortion:

Thanks to the 178 of you who filled out ASN’s supporter survey! We will
be using the results to help shape our plan as we move ASN forward. We
were interested to find that:

88% of the respondents identified as women

42% were from the Republic of Ireland

40% live in England

68.5% of supporters have friends and family who know they support ASN

And, so far, our favourite answer to "Why do you support ASN?" was this:

“I am a limited income myself, and it's hard to know which charities
will make the most of what I can afford to give. I choose ASN because I
feel it's only through quirk of circumstance that the women you help
have to go through what they do and I don't. What you do is real and
immediate and I can see how vital it is to the women you help and as a
tool of change. These are my sisters. Thank you for helping them.”

Thank you for helping us, not only to help women, but to help us learn more about us as an organisation!

A word about your donations

ASN has now been around for almost four years and in that time we have
heard from more than 900 women seeking our help. It’s been amazing to
see how far we’ve come – and with your support! We’re now entering a
very exciting time of growth, in which we need to do all we can to
ensure the long-term sustainability of ASN.

As a reader of this newsletter you know that the demand for ASN's
services has been growing. We're glad the word is spreading about us and
that more women who need us are reaching out - but as the number of
women contacting us increases, so do our costs. With your support, we
pride ourselves on helping as many women as possible. But to make sure
we're able to keep helping women in need, some operational costs are
necessary.

From now on, we want to let you know that any donations you make to us
will be considered "unrestricted" unless you tell us otherwise. This
means we will allocate your donations to whatever is most needed at the
time. That may be a last-minute flight for a woman in need, paying the
phone bill to keep the helpline open, the fee for the accounting
software that makes sure we're keeping track of every pound, euro or
dollar, or an investment in a part-time staff member - the latter being
another first for ASN! We always strive to keep our costs as low as
possible - this just helps us to be more responsive to the needs of ASN
throughout the year. If you have any questions about what this means for
your donations, or you would like to restrict your donations, please
contact us at donors@abortionsupport.org.uk. Thank you so much for all your donations and support!

Women we’ve helped

In June and July, ASN heard from 65 women, including:

A young mother with
mental health issues, who suffered severe physical complications
problems after her last pregnancy and wanted information about www.womenonweb.org.

A
foreign national living in Ireland with a pregnancy affected by fatal
foetal anomalies. Initially booked into a clinic, she was unable to be
seen there and had to be transferred to a private hospital for
treatment. ASN was able to offer a grant towards the cost of the
procedure and travel as well as provide her and her husband with a host
for three nights.

A woman who attended an appointment at a clinic in England, only to find that her pregnancy
was more advanced than she had thought and as a result, her abortion
would be £600 more than she had planned for. ASN was able to support her
with a £180 grant for the amount she was unable to cover.

A
young woman whose partner has been increasingly violent towards her.
She decided that her best option was to have an abortion but was
struggling to get the funding together. ASN was able to help.

A
couple whose pregnancy would not survive who made the choice to travel
to England for a termination. In addition to the grief of having their
wanted pregnancy end in catastrophe, this couple faced the added burdens
of financial hardship, English as a second language, needing visas to
travel and making child care arrangements for their young child. The
client had this to say:

“It
has been like I am in a room and I can't get out, I was locked in, and
you have opened the window for me. Thank you very, very much for your
support. I have spoken to so many people to try and get help. I am
very, very sad it is a very sad time for us, I will lose two babies. You
have made my heart a bit happier. Thank you very, very much.”

A
young mother of a child with a genetic disorder, who after becoming
pregnant again travelled to England for an early medical abortion but
was sent home as she was over the limit for this treatment. By the time
she contacted us, her struggle to raise additional funds as well as
purchase a second pair of plane tickets had pushed her into the most
expensive gestation for termination. Through a herculean effort on her
part she was able to raise £1000 towards her procedure and ASN was able
to donate the rest.

And finally, we received this from one of the many women who we have informed about Women on Web, after she had used their service to access a safe, early medical abortion with pills:

"I never understood before how being able to have an abortion could be empowering, but now I do".

We thank these women and
men for allowing us to share their stories. Also please note – all funds
are written as GBP whether the clients are living in N or S Ireland.

Have some time and a flair for the social? ASN seeks two volunteers!

ASN is currently seeking two volunteers to help our fast growing organisation.

Volunteer events coordinator

In this role you’ll be the first port of call for all queries from
people who want to organise fundraisers for ASN. Whether it’s a pub quiz
or running a marathon, you will work with ASN’s Director and
Fundraising Team to signpost people to the ASN fundraising toolkit, send
out ASN leaflets, help publicise fundraisers where appropriate, and
proactively seek out fundraising events opportunities. Experience with
event management would be preferred, but most of all you need to be
organised, committed to approx. two hours a week for a period of one
year, and available by email and phone. Ideally you’ll also be within
easy distance of London or Dublin.

Volunteer Facebooker

ASN is seeking one to two people to ensure ASN’s Facebook presence. In
this role you will be responsible for sourcing and posting content as an
Admin for the ASN Facebook page as well as increasing our number of
“likes”. Experience with social media is required, and experience of
Facebook analytics is a plus, but mostly we’re seeking a pro-choice,
abortion activist news junkie with a flair for what might get people to
subscribe to the ASN newsletter or become more active supporters.

If either of these roles sound like you, please email your CV and a few sentences about why you are interested to mara@abortionsupport.org.uk. Please put “Events coordinator” or “Facebooker” in the subject line.

Gift in Kind – Have a phone to spare?

After many years of loyal service, ASN’s (donated by a volunteer) smart
phone has bitten the dust. Do you have a trustworthy mobile you’d be
able to donate to us? All we need is an unlocked phone that has phone,
text, and email capabilities. We’re hoping that at least one of our
supporters is a technology junkie with a phone going spare. Please get in touch if you do – and we promise to think of you every time a woman in need contacts ASN for help!

***

Thank you again for all your support. Without you, we wouldn’t have been
able to provide financial assistance, accommodation and confidential,
non-judgemental information to many women who have contacted us for
support.